Page 184 - The 60.Venice Biennial & MoMA issue of WOA Contemporary Art magazine

WORLD-CLASS ART

RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA:
A LOT OF PEOPLE
CENTRAL TO THE EXHIBITION IS A NEWLY CONCEIVED
PRESENTATION OF FIVE HISTORICAL INTERACTIVE PIECES,
PRESENTED ON A STAGE AS A SERIES OF PLAYS. TIRAVANIJA
DESCRIBES THE ONGOING EVOLUTION OF HIS WORKS: “LIKE A
GOOD RECIPE, EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT TASTES
Rirkrit Tiravanija. Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbors. 2011. Digital video (color,
LIKE AND EVEN HOW TO MAKE IT AGAIN - PERHAPS EVEN sound), 149 min. Installation view, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view
DIFFERENTLY, FOLLOWING THEIR OWN INTERPRETATION; OR at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy
MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell.
PERHAPS IT WOULD BE A BASE FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY
DIFFERENT, A POSSIBILITY.
These works include many original sculptures, installations, and
editions, some of which have been subsequently reimagined,
cast, and memorialized over the years in new materials from
From the start of Tiravanija’s practice, a critical material for his
plaster to bronze. Formative to his early practice, Tiravanija’s
works has been the presence of “a lot of people” - a purposefully
concern with the politics of the personal expanded into works
broad and expansive term that stands as an open invitation to
that tackle global politics as well as the quotidian news cycle.
everyone and anyone, present and future. Surveying his practice
Works from his Demonstration Series (2001–present) - drawings
as a sculptor, filmmaker, poet, traveler, collaborator, and mentor,
rendering photographs found in the International Herald Tribune
A LOT OF PEOPLE provides an overview of the striking complexity
- will be presented alongside his evolving series of text pieces
of Tiravanija’s pluralistic and itinerant efforts to “bring people in”
on newsprint, and appropriations of other artists, such as Philip
to encounter each other and “make less things, but more useful
Guston. To make many of these works, Tiravanija has set up a
relationships.”
studio near his home in Chiang Mai, Thailand, creating an economy
The exhibition will gather rarely seen early works from the late
of art production that is explicitly localized and collaborative. Much
1980s and 1990s, a period in which the artist was developing a
like his site-specific installations, such works always depend on an
post-studio practice and introducing biographical references to
element of reciprocity, challenging notions of authorship.
highlight his experiences as an immigrant with a palpable sense
of “otherness” in a Western-centric art world.
Several interactive works will also be on view, along with stagings
of five participatory works scheduled at month-long intervals
Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 1998 (cinéma de ville). 1998. Nylon tent with steel
zippers, collapsible aluminum and cane poles, acrylic guy lines, plastic hardware, throughout the run of the exhibition. These will include iconic
four dual-density foam mats, projector, and DVD player. Installation view, Rirkrit pieces such as untitled 1990 (pad thai) (1990) and untitled 1994
Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through (angst essen seele auf) (1994), as well as more recent works
March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell.
such as untitled 2011 (t-shirt, no t-shirt) (2011), which invite
audiences into a series of real-life exchanges and interactions.
These site-specific stagings acknowledge the distinct times and
contexts in which these works were originally enacted, creating
an experience in which audiences can observe, as well as take
part in, the happenings with critical distance. As “demonstrations,”
these works propose new models for narrating and understanding
contemporary art history.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE is organized by Ruba Katrib,
Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, MoMA PS1, and Yasmil
Raymond, Rector, Städelschule and Director of Portikus, Frankfurt,
with Jody Graf and Kari Rittenbach, Assistant Curators, MoMA PS1.

184 WORLD of ART